CARS - The Good old days

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Mon 28 Oct 2013 14:35
CARS - The Good old days - oldroverboy.

Remembering with a friend a few of the liitle things that used to make us smile when cars came in for fixing.

The lady, recovered by the breakdown services after filling the engine with water instead of the windscreen washer bottle, the actor who was trying to describe a fan blade using hand movements (hilarious)and the egntleman who lost his sump plug and was stopping every now and then to add engine oil.

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Mon 28 Oct 2013 16:41
CARS - The Good old days - DrippingSump

An absent sump plug................now that is a substantial oil leak. Was it being topped off from a 40 gallon drum?

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Mon 28 Oct 2013 17:11
CARS - The Good old days - hillman

I was watching three lads very carefully tuning an engine in a garage workshop. One of them was adjusting the timing by observing the marks on the crankshaft pully by means of a flashing strobe and the other two were bent into the engine compartment as low as he was. Their concentration was total, and then the dirty shoulder length hair of one of them trailed accross the battery terminals and caused a spark. The hydrogen released by the battery ignited with a loud POP and three bodies jerked upright. Then they all started laughing and then continued working.

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Mon 28 Oct 2013 18:10
CARS - The Good old days - monian

In a rural garage in Anglesey some years ago, there was the owner who was rumoured to be able to fix anything with a lump hammer. He drove a customer's Reliant Robin over his garage pit to change the oil with predictable results!

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Mon 28 Oct 2013 18:45
CARS - The Good old days - madf

My brand new company Austin Allegro almost lost its sump plug outside Montrose in Scotland. Held on by one thread, I tightened it by hand and drove gingerly to the nearest garage who tightened it and added 3 litres of oil...

The magneto in my 1929 Riley overheated over 40mph and lost all spark. Fortunatleuy there was a spare one in the boot. Replaced it and retimed it with just an adjustable spanner (!).

Brake fade in cars with drum brakes was always "fun". My 1946 Rover 16 went down long fast Scottish hills with a distinctive smell of burning brake linings and a brake pedal pushed hard to the floor. The handbarke worked!

Nailfiles were ideal for truing up ignition points..My mother got very annoyed as I kept using hers..

Axle tramp when hitting potholes was a feature of front beam axles - once endured never forgotten.. The feeling of the steering column vibrating and no steering control was brown pants stuff.

Redex was cxlaimed to be a way of improving piston ring sealing. Put a small amount down each spark plus and leave 24 hours. When you started the car up, - eventually - it drove away normally. But when teh exhaust warmed up, all the Redex ekected into teh exhaust system emitted clouds of grey/white smoke which hung over the road to a height of 5 meters for half a mile.

Baked bean cans were ideal for filling rust holes in the floor..and boidged with Plastic Padding, underseal and a covering of mud for the MOT...

Edited by madf on 28/10/2013 at 18:49

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Mon 28 Oct 2013 19:35
CARS - The Good old days - craig-pd130

Helping a mate rebuild the engine in his Trumpet Vitesse convertible (bought for £300 in 1982). The new bronze bushes for the little ends were a bit too tight for the gudgeon pins so we wet & dried them to size by hand, wrapping the paper round a finger and reaming until they were all a nice sliding fit.

It ran very well (and quietly) when rebuilt, amazingly.

Replacing a broken-up paper air filter on a mate's Viva by securing a couple of legs from a pair of tights over the air filter housing's intake snorkel, with a rubber band.

Edited by craig-pd130 on 28/10/2013 at 19:37

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Mon 28 Oct 2013 20:08
CARS - The Good old days - bathtub tom

A young apprentice was told to check and fill the oil on a moggie minor. So he removed the oil filler cap and filled it - brim full!

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